Data Mining Network Graphs

The american discourse on the Chevron-Texaco case in Ecuador: A Network Approach

How do you visualize a discourse?  In this blog post I give a quick preview of the way I use a network graph for visualizing the topic model that uncovers the topics underlying the american discourse about the Chevron-Texaco case in Ecuador. With LDA, I found 55 topics related to 14 discursive categories: corruption, corporate power, responsability, environmental crisis, indigenous communities, solidarity, economy, politics, security, conflict, justice, sovereignty, imperialism and mass media. With a network graph, this discourse looks as follows: 

Visualizing Networks

The Twitter Network of an Anti-Mining NGO 

I've been exploring strategies for visualizing the networks of anti-mining NGOs.¿Who are they connected to? Since this issue is probably too big for one blog post, I might give a quick preview of how these networks look like by visualizing the twitter network of actors followed by an Anti-Mining NGO in Colombia with NodeXL. NGOs, activists, mass media, social and indigenous movements, environmental coalitions, stakeholders, policy makers, scholars, research centers, regional comissions and labor unions seem to be the actors frequently followed in this case.

Exploring Semantic Networks

Networks in times of social crisis: The Coca-Cola case in Colombia 

The sociologist Ronald S. Burt (1975) outlined a methodology for studying a society in transition as reflected in its mass media. He was concerned with the transition of the United States from a person oriented society in the 19th century to a corporate society during the 20th century and his strategy was to identify the networks of associations among categories of actors by using past issues of The New York Times. In this blog post I'm exploring how a variant of Burt’s method might be applied to study the transition of a society in times of crisis using a combination of words parsing and social network analysis. 

CDKN Supports a network intervention

"Learning lessons from Manatí’s resilient women"

A project in Colombia is investigating how women were affected by devastating floods in 2010 and 2011. The hope is to pass on knowledge about how they reacted and coped, to help other communities prepare for similar disasters. By Beatrice Mosello (CDKN’s Project Officer), Samir Eljagh and Eliana Sanandres Campis (Researchers at Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia). You can find more information HERE.